Now Playing

8/14/2011 2:05PM

Bachmann Up, Pawlenty Out in Ames

Michele Bachmann's strong showing in the Ames Straw Poll, followed closely by Ron Paul, has knocked Tim Pawlenty, a distant third, out of the race. But the poll is a poor predictor of the Republican presidential nomination. WSJ's Neil King reports. Photo courtesy Reuters.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... she was this out the I am not to be the next president of the the the the uh uh uh ... without it being straw poll Michele Bachmann of Minnesota as many people predicted ended up having a very strong showing here she garnered even more votes ... than Mitt Romney did four years ago everything I need to tell a lie ... I ... lack a dial up ... to fourteen years the native of Wyle of ... she she used to serve routes are a lot of this is really kind of ground zero in Miniwiz ... for the kind of constituency the Michele Bachmann is reaching out to her a lot of evangelical voters here ... homeschoolers do well here is good for her it's a different question is whether she can ... carry the same kind of momentum into a different ... of voting trend altogether like New Hampshire for South Carolina for that matter which are going to be the other two early contests come next year as surprise ... the government off our backs the the the the ... political code of the race and they have to be disappointed in it ... who fled the camp was playing this pretty conservatively all along that the middle of a company that there are no Sicilian to come in first or second you put a lot of money into this they have a lot of time the campaign tear for much of the last month one of the surprises that Ron Paul of Texas showing is organisational its cloud came in at almost the body uses a close second ... the countries in the trial ... economically speaking and people are tired ... which are now worse than it was before ... who are making great progress of the necessity of nothing else last time four years ago ... Mitt Romney won this ... of a straw poll by a large margin I which is a good news of the most electable candidate when it comes to running in general and the five hundred and sixty seven votes he was actually on the ballot there is no time your campaigning ... ordinaries organizes do in a bid to bring people out ... the only got into the race on Saturday ... of measures to bring in seven hundred and eighteen votes ... to write in candidate he's got a strong record job rather than those that believe in this and are now ... than he spent no money and did nothing in terms of his own organization care less about a third as many votes is simple and to go ... VT voting began ... with the sheer number of people was pretty respectable there are about ... seventeen thousand people it in now which is slightly higher than four years ago uncertainly indoors ... the Iowa straw poll of what it means to the process of electing a president ... but I think it's a very important ... filtered through which candidates should have to come on the other hand it is worth noting that the Iowa straw poll ... had been a lousy predictor for the most part not only of who goes on to win the Iowa caucuses early next year but here goes on to win the nomination ... this is Neil King with a Wall Street Journal in Ames Iowa ...